Wellesley Students Occupy Administration Building in South Africa Protest With AM-Apartheid

April 3, 1986

Wellesley Students Occupy Administration Building in South Africa Protest With AM-Apartheid Protest, Bjt

WELLESLEY, Mass. (AP) _ About 40 Wellesley College students occupied a floor of the main administration building Thursday to protest the college’s investments in companies doing business with South Africa.

The protesters, who entered the building at 4 a.m., planned to stay for at least 24 hours, said Helene Alpert, a sophomore from Bethesda, Md., and spokeswoman for the Ad Hoc Committee for Divestment Now.

The protesters blocked access to the third-floor offices of the president, dean and other top administrators of the women’s college, forcing them to work elsewhere, said Wellesley spokeswoman Ann O’Sullivan.

But she said officials do not plan to remove the students.

″I think (school officials) feel it’s an appropriate way for the students to express their concern,″ Ms. O’Sullivan said. ″It’s being conducted in an orderly fashion.″

The protesters want the college’s Board of Trustees, which meets Friday, to vote to sell all of Wellesley’s $36 million in South Africa-related investments, about 20 percent of its portfolio. The school has sold about $3 million in such investments, Ms. O’Sullivan said.

Ms. Alpert declined to say how the students entered the building, which she said is usually locked.